a rehearsed reading of a new play as part of Writers’ Room Festival. a group of women gather every night at a summer camp for girls to eat, drink, worry and reminisce.

over the course of two weeks, concern about one of the girls begins to bubble up in their conversations. what should they do? what can they do? and isn’t this how it’s always been, for all of us?

a modular play built for sustainable touring, inspired by the testimonies of refugees and ‘economic migrants’. the workshop experimented with a form of group dramaturgy in which participants use the text to build a play which speaks to them as a group.

using this as a blueprint, THE TABLE has gone on to be performed around the UK, in a different co-created iteration each time.

a one-woman play performed by Sabrina Wu, beginning with a meet-cute at a barbecue, and charting the infinitesimal steps of a relationship towards abuse.

“Can you report him?”
And say what? I think.

this show was generously and skilfully taken over by directors Izzy Rabey and Jasmine Teo when I had to take maternity leave partway through rehearsals.

★★★★ – Evening Standard, The Stage

the debut play by award-winning playwright Waleed Akhtar. an early-2000s period piece, inspired by a true story of Afghanistan’s first youth music TV programme. after the US invasion, Farook and Samia ride a wave of optimism, soundtracked by MTV. but the fierce friendship they develop can’t protect them as they are caught in political crossfires, and failed at every turn.

“director Anna Himali Howard is a brilliant mind who turns everything she touches to gold, and this show is no different.” – British Vogue

workshop and sharing of a new play by Matilda Feyiṣayọ Ibini.

written and performed by Jasmine Lee-Jones. a solo piece which brings to life the mess and glory of London across centuries. a frank, funny and moving excavation of the lives of two actresses who are young, Black, queer and trying to find out who they are.

★★★★, The Independent

co-created with Gloucester Youth Climate Action

when Strike A Light encountered GYCA on a school strike for climate, they asked the strikers what they needed. soon, they started having their meetings in Strike A Light’s office, and not long after, they decided to make a theatre show. it was a huge honour to be chosen by these young people as a collaborator, and together we made a show about being a teenager in the climate crisis. we worked with young climate activists around the world, and brought their voices on a UK tour, culminating in a performance at COP26 in glasgow.

workshop and sharing of a new play by Maud Dromgoole.

a triple bill of plays centring older women characters, rehearsed amid lockdown and performed at the Orange Tree to an audience at home.

“directed with subtlety and grace by Anna Himali Howard” – ★★★★, The Stage

the UK premiere of Swedish writer Lisa Langseth’s one-woman play which places womanhood and capitalism in a mythological lens. due to be performed at the Yard in the first New Nordics festival, but sadly cancelled on the first day of tech due to COVID.

a piece putting Macbeth into conversation with Silvia Federici’s Caliban and the Witch, made with students at RCSSD through a process which included cold swims on the Heath, dance, improvisation and social distancing.

Graeae’s first edition of Crips with Chips, an accessible scratch night centring deaf, Disabled and neurodivergent writers.

– The Grey Area by Lettie Precious
– spaffer-johnsons blackshirt-brexit by gobsscure
– One of Us by Nicola Werenowska
– An Inverted Pyramid by Karen Featherstone

the debut play by Zia Ahmed
integrated BSL by Rachael Merry

‘i think i’m falling in love with you’

Ella is from Yorkshire. Haseeb is from London. They order a pizza. House red for Ella. Hot chocolate for Haseeb.

a tender, funny, lyrical debut play about finding love and holding onto it with everything you’ve got.

“the execution is exquisite” – Guardian

“directed with sensitivity but also fizz by Anna Himali Howard” – ★★★★ Time Out

“There’s a magic to Anna Himali Howard’s production” – ★★★★ Evening Standard

workshops and readings of new plays by writers from across Europe, including Mihaela Dragan and Maryam Zaree.

rehearsed readings of plays written by young people as part of the National Theatre’s playwrighting scheme for secondary school students.

by Jamaica Kincaid
adapted for the stage by Season Butler

a confronting and immersive stage adaptation of Jamaica Kincaid’s searing essay about tourism and colonialism in Antigua.

“bold and enlivening polemical theatre” – Guardian
★★★★ – What’sOnStage

a delicate and sweeping story about the secrets and choices that come back to haunt us. staged as part of NEW festival 2018.

from the acclaimed novel by Nadifa Mohamed
composed by Nina Whiteman

a workshop sharing of a new opera adaptation of The Fortune Men, about the wrongful execution of Mahmood Hussein Mattan in 1950s Cardiff. shared as part of Engender Festival 2021.